SDUSD TEACHERS SET FOR LEARNING NEW STANDARDS

Federal Common Core initiative requires training, paid by state

As California prepares to roll out Common Core academic standards, San Diego city schools have mapped out a massive training effort for more than 6,000 teachers.

Gov. Jerry Brown budgeted $1.25 billion to pay for one-time Common Core preparations, and the money must be spent by July 2015. San Diego County’s share is about $100 million, with $22.5 million going to the San Diego Unified School District.

State law requires the funds to be used for professional development, instructional materials and technology support needed to administer the online tests that will replace the old fill-in-the-bubble STAR assessments.

San Diego Unified is positioned to use a larger portion of the state funds on teacher training than other districts that still need major improvements in technology, such as buying enough computers to administer the Common Core exams, said Teresa Walter, who oversees San Diego Unified’s Office of Teaching and Learning.

“We have i21, so we will not have to make as large an investment,” Walter said, referring to the technology plan that has used bond money to pay for netbooks and iPads. “Our intent is to focus on building teacher capacity and school capacity to provide the kind of instruction that will prepare and educate students to meet the demands of Common Core.”

The district plans to spend 63 percent of its allotment — about $14 million — on development. Training sessions will help teachers change classroom instruction under a shift that calls for less rote memorization and more critical-thinking skills.

In addition, about 26 percent — $5.8 million — will go toward purchasing classroom materials. Some 7 percent has been earmarked for technology, and 4 percent has been reserved for indirect costs and unforeseen expenses.

The San Diego school board is set to consider the Common Core preparation plan Tuesday.

California adopted Common Core benchmarks for English and math in 2010. So far, 45 states have signed on to what will be the nation’s first universal K-12 testing standards — designed to enable state-by-state comparisons of student performance.

Although California has adopted the standards, it’s up to each school district to decide when — or if — to implement the academic guidelines, said Tina Jung, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Education.

The majority of local districts and schools are working to implement Common Core, though at varying paces. Some campuses have been incorporating Common Core-based lessons and educating parents about the changes for years. Others are just getting started.

“There is a range of implementation,” Walter said of San Diego Unified’s roughly 200 schools.

Although the academic standards are voluntary, the new state tests are not. California will measure school performance — as early as the 2014-15 academic year — using Common Core-influenced tests called Smarter Balanced.

San Diego Unified and other districts will begin field-testing those new exams this school year, although they will not publish the results. The pause in reporting test scores could be extended for an additional year.

The overarching goal of Common Core is to transform how students are taught, particularly what they must do to master math and English language arts.

Nonfiction will be stressed over fiction, accounting for half of classroom reading in the elementary grades and reaching up to 70 percent by high school. Students will be pushed to analyze the text and develop opinions on it. Even math classes will demand more critical thinking, requiring them to confer with classmates and critique the reasoning of their peers.